


A Chance Encounter

by DustyDiamond



Category: Leverage, The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-22 19:34:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8297752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustyDiamond/pseuds/DustyDiamond
Summary: A chance encounter leads to a long time coming reunion





	1. Who was that unmasked man?

Parker grinned crazily and ran across South East Stark street towards Revolution Hall. "You're back," she cried out as she launched herself into his arms. 

Shocked at the sudden appearance of the blonde that he somehow managed to catch, Parker's intended target said nothing.

Her legs remained wrapped around his waist as she ruffled her fingers through his short hair. "You cut it." Lowering her feet to the ground she frowned and said, "I like it long better."

He frowned. "I'm sorry. I have no idea what you are talking about. You must have me mistaken for someone else."

"Ohhhhhhhhh I get it. You're still on that mission for your friend," she whispered. Executing an overly exaggerated wink she loudly said, "I'm sorry, my mistake. Now that I take a second look you're not the man I thought you were." She started to head off down the street then turned her head back and added, "Stop by the BridgePort Brew Pub later and I'll buy you a drink."

Later that night she was disappointed when Eliot didn't come into the Brew Pub. He'd been gone over a month in what was supposed to be a quick mission for Vance. When she had asked what it was all about he scowled and said, "I'm not at liberty to tell you that Parker." That was the thing about him, she never knew if he was teasing her about those things or if they really were that secretive that he could't even share it with his partners. 

"I'm bored," she declared.

Hardison raised his eyes from his computer and looked up to where she was hanging from the rafters. "Baby girl Eliot will be home any day now then we can take a case."

"Why can't we take one without him?" Parker pouted.

"It would be too risky with just the two of us and we need his protection."

"He taught us both how to fight," she pointed out.

"And neither of us is as good as he is."

"I saw him today. He pretended he didn't know me." She lowered herself down to hover just above the table. "He cut his hair."

"Parker ...."

"What if he doesn't come home?"

"He will, baby girl. Remember? He told Sophie he'd take care of us until his dying day. You know Eliot is a man of his word and if you saw him that means he hasn't met his dying day," Hardison said trying to reassure her. He loved her and didn't like seeing Parker worry that way. He made a mental note to talk to Eliot when he got back.

"He could call," she muttered.

"Come here." He held his arms out to her and she went to him, snuggling into his embrace. 

Three nights later Parker walked into the kitchen and heard the familiar voice she had been missing. "Add a a bit more cayenne to that. It's not strong enough." She strode over to Eliot and punched him in his right bicep. 

"Where have you been?" she demanded.

"Nice to see you too Parker." Eliot casually rubbed where her fist had connected.

"Well at least you know my name now," she said angrily.

"What are you talking about? I've known your name for seven crazy years."

"How'd you get your hair long again? It was short three days ago."

Eliot frowned and grabbed Parker by the hand. "C'mon," he said gruffly. "Add that pepper," he added over his shoulder as they walked out of the kitchen. Once they were in the back room he turned to her and said, "Parker my hair was not short three days ago and you did not see me. I was not in the country."

"Still keeping it a secret? Is that like area fifty-one or was it fifty-two?" Her eyes lit up. "Oooo I know! You were wearing a wig! Or are you wearing a wig now." Before he realized what she intended to do Parker grabbed a section of his hair and tugged. 

"Ow! Damnit Parker that hurt!'

"Don't be a baby I had to see if it was real."

As usual Hardison was engrossed in something on his laptop although he vaguely registered their conversation in the back of his mind. He turned his chair towards them. "Eliot, Parker told me she saw you three days ago on South East Stark near Revolution Hall."

"Parker. It wasn't me." He cupped the side of her face in his hand. "I'm not lying to you darlin'. I wasn't in the country."

Parker frowned. Her lower lip trembled with uncertainty. "But he looked just like you. Only he shaved and his hair ... it was cut short. He talked kind of like you too, when you're not being all growly."

"Dude, you got a doppelganger."

"What's a doppelganger?" Parker asked Hardison.

"A twin, someone who looks like you. Usually a harbinger of bad luck."

"Eliot's going to have bad luck? That's not good."

"Maybe I'm the bad luck," Eliot muttered wondering if his past had somehow caught up with him. "I'm going to get a beer. Parker, don't go anywhere. I want to talk to you about this guy when I get back."

"Get some Thief Juice."

"I'm not drinking that junk," Eliot said as he walked from the room. He returned a few minutes later with a bottle of his favored beer. "Couch." He jerked his head toward that piece of furniture. When they were both seated there and Hardison was in the matching chair Eliot turned to Parker. "Tell me about this guy you thought was me. How did you meet him? Did he say anything?"

"Eliot? Is he someone we have to be worried about?" Alec asked.

"I dunno. Maybe."

"Like Alec said, I saw him near Revolution Hall. I was across the street. I thought it was you so I ran over to say hi and give you a hug but he said he wasn't you."

"Who did he say he was, Parker?"

"He didn't."

"And he had no reaction to my name?"

"He said I must have him mistaken for someone else." She bit her lower lip then said, "I thought it was you on your secret mission still so I agreed with him but told him to stop by here and I would buy him a beer."

"Judging by how you treated me when you saw me in the kitchen I guess he never came by."

Parker shook her head. 

"What do we do if he does come in?" Alec asked.

"Get me."

"Should we worry about him showing up here? Should I keep my taser on me?" Parker asked.

"Parker, I've told you, you can't just go around tasering people."

"But if he's an evil cyborg Eliot we need to disarm him."

"You've been watching too many of Hardison's geek movies. He's not a cyborg or mechanical being. He is a human."

"Ooo maybe he's a clone! Did they clone you?" Parker asked.

Eliot sighed. "No, they did not clone me." Eliot was fairly sure he knew who Parker had run into but if it his suspicions were right what was he doing in Portland?


	2. Come Together

As curious as he was about his doppelganger, Eliot had no time to delve into that mystery. Leverage International took on a job that had the three of them heading overseas. Oddly enough that job led to another and still another until it was close to two months before they returned. At the Brew Pub Hardison got three beers from the bar and brought them over to the table Parker and Eliot had settled at.

"That better not be one of your awful attempts at beer making," Eliot warned.

"Have you even tried my Cranberry Lager? People like my beers." Alec said.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." Eliot took a taste of the beer Hardison had put before him and promptly spit it out. He raised his arm signaling for the waitress Amy who often looked after the pub when they were away. 

"Welcome back," she said when she approached the table.

"Thanks. Could you get me a decent beer, please?" Eliot asked.

Amy smiled knowing how much Eliot despised anything Alec had come up with. "Sure thing." She returned with one of the brews he favored. 

"Anything out of the ordinary happen while we were away?" Eliot asked, thinking about his double and the offer Parker had made him to come there.

"No. Business as usual."

"Good." He could only hope the man Parker had met on the street would think the blonde thief was crazy and never come anywhere near the place. 

 

**.... Two weeks later Library Annex Portland, Oregon ......**

 

"I don't know mate. What if it's that shapeshifter, Hokolonote? Maybe he found a way out and came here?"

"We trapped him. Aside from that there is nothing to fear. If he did find a way out we know how to weaken him to get him back in," Jake answered without looking up from the book he was studying.

"Still, aren't you the least bit curious about the blonde? She seemed to like you well enough."

Jake's gaze went from the book to the Librarian's resident thief. "She liked someone other than me. I have no idea who she is."

"We could go check out that pub and find out. Might even get lucky," Ezekiel Jones said waggling his eyebrows.

Jake sighed. "Admit it, you're bored hanging around here with nothing to steal."

The smirk on Jones face said it all. Unlike Jake who was happy with his books, he craved some kind of action. "What do you say, mate? Just you and me without the girls?" When Jake ignored the question Ezekiel continued with, "She said she'd buy. Can't beat free drinks, right?"

"A drink."

"A drink is better than no drink."

"And that was months ago."

"Okay, I get it. You want to stay here with these musty old books. I'm bored. I'll go alone."

"Okay," Jake said absentmindedly, having already returned to what he had been reading.

"Maybe I can find something good to steal while I am there."

Jake had barely registered Ezekiel's words and the sound of footsteps before he quickly shut the book and stood up. "Wait! I'll go." As he hurried to catch up to Ezekiel, Jake muttered under his breath, "Someone's got to keep you out of trouble and Colonel Baird isn't around to do it."

 

**.... Bridgeport Brew Pub .....**

 

"Looks like a right nice place," Ezekiel said. As he walked through the door followed by Jake, his eyes scanned the room for the blonde that had run into them several months back. He was a bit disappointed that he couldn't locate her in the crowd. The way she had spoken, offering to buy Jake a beer, he assumed she must have a connection with the place and would most likely be there. He quickly got over it though as he noted the dark-haired waitress Amy Palavi. He jabbed Jake in the side and pointed her out. "Now doesn't that make you happy you came out with me?"

"I thought we came out for a beer," Jake pointed out.

"You came out for a beer. Me? I think a beer and a pretty lady works better."

Jake made for the bar but Ezekiel steered him towards a table instead. "Might want to get a bite to eat too."

"More like might want to get that waitress to come on over. You _do_ realize you can get food served to you at the bar, right?" Jake pointed out as he pulled out a chair and sat down at the first empty table they had come to. 

"Right, but this is more comfortable." Ezekiel sat down in the chair across from Jake.

When Amy approached their table she drew in a quick breath. Fully aware that Eliot was in the kitchen she blinked twice and resisted rubbing her eyes. "Hi. Welcome to the Bridgeport Brew Pub. What can I get you gentlemen?" she asked while remembering Eliot's orders to get him if someone looking like him came in.

Ezekiel grinned. "What would you recommend?"

"Food or drink?" Amy asked. 

"We'll start with a couple beers. Nothing fancy. Just plain beer," Jake said before Ezekiel could get anything else out.

She went over to the bar and ordered two of their most popular brews. After delivering them to the table she worked her way back to the kitchen. 

"Eliot."

"Kinda busy here Amy. Can Hardison or Parker help you out?" Eliot was dicing onions and had not looked up when she spoke his name.

"Umm. You told me to get you if that guy that looks like you came in."

"Eliot's clone? Is he here?" Parker asked, from above.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Amy answered.

Parker dropped down from above at the same time Eliot's knife stabbed the cutting board. "Parker stay here," Eliot instructed as he made for the door that lead to the bar.

"He's not alone," Amy said.

"I'm going. You might need help with the other guy," Parker said.

Eliot snorted. "When have I ever needed help with two guys?"

"I'm still going, Sparky," she said as she doggedly followed. 

"Parker please."

"Okay well let me go out and make sure it's the guy I saw." She pushed her way past Eliot and went out into the bar.

"Park..." Eliot growled as he went after her but the blonde was quicker and he didn't want to look like a fool rushing out after her.

"Look mate it's the blonde." Ezekiel had continued to look around while Jake was sitting there sipping his beer, not really paying any attention to what else was going on in the bar. His mind was on the research work he had been doing. "I'm going to go talk to her." Jake rose to stop Ezekiel but stopped dead in his tracks. Coming out from behind the bar was someone he had not seen in years. Their eyes met across the room, one's looking shocked, the other's blank, hiding the mixed emotions of the man they belonged to. 

Without realizing it, Ezekiel actually helped Eliot out by waylaying Parker so that he could confront the man who wore his face on his own. He stopped three feet away and said, "Jake."

"I'm seeing a ghost."

"I'm no ghost," Eliot said as he took a step closer. His arms hung at his sides, the hands clenching and unclenching, a sign of how nervous this meeting was making him

"Oh you're a ghost alright. Know how I know this?"

"I'm not.."

"I know this because my brother, my twin, the one I shared a womb with would _never_ stay away this long without a word to let me know he was alive." As he spoke Jake's voice rose gaining the attention of those around him.

"Come with me. We can talk about this in the back." Eliot wanted to get his twin out of there before Jake spilled more of their relationship to the pub's patrons and employees.

"Why? Just tell me why?"

"Back room. Now." Eliot turned away and headed towards the back. He didn't look to see if he was followed as he passed through the door that was labeled Employees Only.


	3. Absence Of Judgement

Jake trailed behind Eliot and following them was Parker with Ezekiel. Inside their offices, their home, Eliot turned and seeing Ezekiel he pointed a finger at him. "I don't know you. Get out."

"Oi, I don't know you! Him I know. He's my mate." He jerked his head towards Jake.

"He's with me," Jake confirmed.

Eliot scowled. "Fine. Stay but don't interrupt if you want to keep living."

"He means that," Parker warned.

Eliot pulled out a chair at the table. "Have a seat Jake." He went to the refrigerator and pulled out a few beers. He knew that the opportunity to talk privately to the twin he had not seen since he was eighteen was an impossibility now. "Ya'll may as well take a seat too," he said as he pulled out his own chair and sat across from his brother. "Jake, this is Parker, one of my business partners. Jake is... my twin."

"That would make you?" Ezekiel asked.

"His brother," Eliot growled.

"His name is Eliot, and he was born six minutes twenty-three seconds before me," Jake answered. He turned towards Eliot and Parker. "This is..."

"Name's Ezekiel Jones. I work with Jake."

Parker's eyes went wide. "He's a thief!' she whispered loudly to Eliot.

"Heard of me have you?" Ezekiel asked cheekily, appearing quite pleased with himself.

"I heard you _tried_ to lift the Rosalind Diamond."

"I almost had it but... wait. What did you say your name was?"

Parker just smiled.

"Is she a thief too?" Jake asked.

"You always were the smarter one," Eliot replied before taking a pull off his beer.

"Not smart enough to keep you from leaving."

"I wasn't going to live my life in that place, under his thumb. I joined the army."

"You left me there."

Eliot sighed. "You could have gotten out. Damn it Jake, you were the brains. You could have had the pick of any university you wanted. Why didn't you just go?"

"Someone had to take care of him. You left. I was stuck."

"Why stay? He never took care of us."

"He put a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs."

"In between drinkin' and beatin' on one of us," Eliot countered.

"It was the booze. It didn't mean he didn't love us," Jake said quietly.

"Love like his..." Eliot paused searching his mind for the words he wanted to use. "Neither of us needed that kind of love. All he wanted was to stifle us. Keeping me there stuck in that town and you... Jake you could have achieved things none of us ever dreamed possible."

Whatever reply Jake would have had was stopped short when the door opened and Hardison walked in. "I have a great idea for a new stout. Apple cheddar...." Spying the group of four sitting around the table he said, "Since when do we meet with clients back ...." It was then that he noticed Jake. "Whoa! Who is this guy that looks exactly like our Eliot Spencer?"

"It's Eliot's brother Jake. They're twins but he never told us he had a twin." Parker got up from her seat and went over to Hardison. "Do you think he is lying and it's some kind of clone?"

"I'm not a clone," Jake said as the same time Eliot growled, "I told you I was not cloned."

"Whoa, whoa whoa. Wait a minute." Jake turned to his brother. He pointed to Hardison. "Did he say your last name was Spencer?" 

This time Parker stood glaring at Jake, her arms crossed over her chest. "Isn't yours? Do they give clones a different name?"

Jake frowned, totally ignoring Parker's question. He pushed his chair back and stood "You changed your name? Was Stone so bad that you had to make up a different name? What was it? Were you ashamed to be a Stone?"

"I needed to..."

Jake growled and flew at Eliot. Unprepared for his brother's attack, Eliot didn't block it and when Jake hit him the chair he was sitting on tipped over backwards. In a flash his twin was on top of him swinging wildly. "You left. Damn you! You let me think you were dead! How could you..."

While Jake punched at him, Eliot did nothing more than defend himself, preventing his twin from doing any serious damage. There was a pause when Jake seemed to tire out that Eliot asked, "Are you done yet?"

"No!" Jake shouted before renewing his efforts to punish the brother that had walked away so many years ago.

"Enough," Eliot growled from beneath Jake. He bucked his hips upwards and with a few quick moves he went from first putting Jake into an armbar hold and when Jake continued to struggle changing up to a choke hold. Even with his face turning red from the hold Eliot had on him Jake continued to struggle.

Eliot loosened the hold just enough to ensure Jake didn't hurt himself. "Stop. You know you can't get out of this."

Ezekiel tapped on Hardison's arm. "Stop him. He's going to kill Jake"

"Nah. If Eliot wanted him dead he would've killed him by now." Parker said.

"Yeah, wouldn't take him his long," Alec added.

Defeated, Jake stilled. "You always won," he said quietly. 

"You ready to listen?" Eliot asked slightly loosening his hold again.

Jake nodded as much as he could. 

Eliot let go of Jake and got to his feet. "Good." He walked back over to the table and grabbed his beer. He took one long swallow before he righted the chair Jake had tipped when he had charged him. "You gonna get up?" he asked Jake before he sat down.

Without replying Jake returned to his chair. He leaned against the back and folded his arms across his chest. 

The move reminded Parker of the way Eliot so often stood. "He even moves like Eliot," she whispered to Hardison.

"Right but he doesn't fight as good," Hardison observed.

The silence in the room grew as the twins sat watching each other. It was Jake that broke it. "I'm listening. Talk."

"I changed my name to protect you," Eliot said.

"You're going to have to tell me more than that."

"When I left home...."

"Yeah, I know you joined the service."

"It was after that. Things... Jake I've done things that I am not proud of. Bad things. Things I will never be clean of. The kind of things that make enemies that would go after everything you love just to get to you." He paused to let that sink in while watching his brother's face for signs of disgust. 

Parker moved to stand behind Eliot. She put a hand on his shoulder. "You're not that man anymore," she said, knowing how heavy Eliot's past weighed on him.

He tilted his head back and gave her one of his rare smiles before returning to look at Jake. "It was safer for you if I distanced myself. Eliot Stone could be traced back to you. Eliot Spencer, not so easy." Here he glanced at Hardison and added, "At least not for some."

Alec shook his head. "I never looked."

"What kind of things did you do?" Jake asked quietly.

As she recalled what Eliot had once told her when she asked something on those lines, Parker said, "Don't ask him."

"Cause if you ask he's gonna tell you," Hadison added.

"So, for him and all of us, please don't ask," Parker finished.

Eliot stood and went over to Jake. As his twin turned in his chair to face him, Eliot squatted before him until they were eye level. "I ain't that kid that walked away that night so many years ago."

Jake wrapped a hand around the back of Eliot's neck. There would be no judgement for the things he learned here today. He leaned forward until their foreheads were touching. "You're still my brother and I still love you," he said quietly. He released Eliot and leaned back wondering if his eyes were shining with the same unshed tears he saw in his brother's. 

Neither spoke for a bit. Wisely the other occupants of the room remained silent waiting, watching. Then, as he stood, Eliot nodded, just once. "What brings you to Portland?" he asked.

"Got a few hours?" Jake asked.

"As long as it takes and a bar full of beer out there to go with it," Eliot responded.

"Let's go." Jake stood and headed for the door that led back to the pub. _You've done things you think I might not be able to accept? Just wait'll you hear my story,_ he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that those who read enjoyed taking this short ride with me. Thank you to those who commented and encouraged me to continue this to the end. You will never know how much I appreciated that.


End file.
